Singapore opens world's first commercial vertical farm

In Singapore, the densely populated Asian island country, there's not a lot of space to grow fresh food. That is if you only think of a farm in the traditional sense.

Singapore is looking to the sky for its food production. It recently opened the world's first commercial vertical farm. Run by Sky Greens, the 3.2 acre farm produces three types of vegetables and sells them at a local supermarket.

Only about seven percent of Singapore's food is grown locally. But with vertical farms, they hope to reach 10 percent. Because so little of the Singapore's food is local, residents are willing to pay a premium. Channel New Asia reports:

Despite the higher prices, the greens have been flying off supermarket shelves.

Ms Ivy Lim, a customer, said: "(The price) is not a very big difference, it's just marginal... I think as compared to organic (produce), the price is very attractive."

"The response has been very good. Even before the official launch, the vegetables were sold out in the last few days," said Mr Tng Ah Yiam, managing director of group purchasing, merchandising and international trading at FairPrice.

The company is looking to attract more investors in order to increase the number of vertical food production towers from 120 to 300, which would increase their daily supply of vegetables from 0.5 tonnes to 2 tonnes by next year.